The present application relates to instrumentation for a rotary wing aircraft and more particularly to an integrated approach display and coupled control system to an offshore facility.
Rotary wing aircraft are routinely required to approach and land at remote offshore sites such as oil rigs. Often obstacles such as ships and weather in the area are unknown or change in route such that current instrument approaches to offshore oil rigs are limited to approximately one-half nautical mile visibility or greater.
Compared to standard instrument approaches to an airfield, offshore approaches require considerable aircrew workload to plan and fly. Currently available cockpit displays provide minimal information on offshore approaches, especially when compared to the situational awareness available for onshore approaches. The FAA desired “stabilized approach” concept is currently not available for an offshore approach.
Although rotary wing aircraft are effectively operated to offshore sites, current approaches require preloaded instrument procedures with a significant number of aircrew actions, many of which must be completed in the critical low level portion of the approach.